As the demand for online books rises, Ohio University Press & Swallow Books continues to increase the number of available electronic books.
Currently, sales of e-books have not caught up to sales of hard-copy books, said David Sanders, the director of OU Press, adding that not everyone has access to e-readers such as Kindle, iPad and NOOK.
I think in the next five years it will be a different scenario
said Sanders.
The press initially considered offering online books about ten years ago and has started offering more in the last 18 months.
The press offers one book, The Quick-Change Artist by Cary Holladay, for Amazon.com's Kindle and 62 books for Barnes & Noble's NOOK.
Seventy-eight books are also available through the press's website as Adobe Digital Editions, PDFs which can be read on a variety of media such as e-readers, some phone applications and computers, said Carolyn King, the marketing associate for OU Press.
People can purchase the Adobe Digital Editions for varying lengths of time. Copies that last thirty days are offered for $5, and ones that last 180 days cost half as much as the permanent versions, according to the OU Press website. Prices for permanent online copies vary by book.
The shorter time lengths are intended for users who need the book for a class or for research purposes. These readers may only need the book for a short time.
A lot of our titles are not ones you may go back to read again Sanders said.
The press typically publishes books that are used as supplemental texts in classes.
The demand for online versions of supplementary books is not as great as that for electronic versions of larger textbooks, said Kristi Goldsberry, business manager at OU Press.
We also have to have rights and permissions to make books electronically available Goldsberry said.
Although some electronic rights are given freely, some authors want to limit formats that are available for their books. The press must determine whether it is economically feasible to offer a book electronically.
Students at OU cite the benefits and challenges to using online books in classes.
It was definitely cheaper and definitely easier
said Carla Latona, a junior studying retail merchandising, adding that it was much easier to search for a single word on her computer rather than search through a chapter in a hard copy book.
However, online texts pose problems for students who do not own laptops.
I don't have a laptop
so it was pretty frustrating
said Curry Hoffman, a senior studying information and telecommunication systems, adding that he viewed online textbooks for two of his classes on his desktop computer.
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Emily Atherton
